There were no major economic data releases in the United States today, but the Chicago Fed’s monthly National Activity Index, out this morning before the opening bell, fell to -0.53 in April from -0.23 the month before.

The big story in markets was the price action in silver (and gold, to a lesser extent). When futures markets re-opened for the week on Sunday night, silver fell as much as 9% before battling back slowly throughout Monday morning. Around noon, when silver made it back to even for the day, buyers swooped in, driving the metal up 2.7% in a matter of minutes. The price action in gold followed the same pattern, but the moves weren’t as big as in silver.

Yahoo! this morning confirmed weekend reports that it would buy social media micro-blogging website Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash. Tumblr only made $13 million in revenue last year, but Yahoo! is hopeful that the deal will increase traffic by 20% and grow its audience by 50%.

Speaking at the CFA Society Chicago today, Chicago Fed President Charlie Evans said the Federal Reserve would like to see inflation closer to its 2% target. Evans said the Fed may or may not choose to sell bonds from its portfolio when the time comes to exit the market, keeping the option of allowing assets to run off (i.e., allowing bonds to mature without selling them).

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